How Do You Prepare Sermons?

In this episode, Dr. David K. Bernard shares practical insights on sermon and Bible study preparation, including the tools and tactics he uses to capture sermon ideas and illustrations. Every pastor, preacher, and Bible student will benefit from the wisdom Dr. Bernard has gleaned from more than forty years of pulpit ministry.

In this episode, Dr. Bernard references the following resources:

• Spiritual Leadership in the Twenty-First Century by David K. Bernard
• We Preach by Jerry Jones 
• Life Preaching by Jonathan McClintock

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

On this edition of Apostolic Life in the 21st Century, Dr. David K. Bernard takes us behind the scenes for a look at how he personally prepares sermons and Bible studies. If you're a preacher or someone who aspires to a pulpit ministry, this episode is for you. Even if you're not a preacher, you'll gain insight on how to become a more effective student of God's Word. That's coming up next. Welcome to Apostolic Life in the Twenty First Century, a podcast dedicated to helping modern-day believers live out the teachings of the first century church. This podcast is part of the teaching ministry of Dr. David K. Bernard. Dr. Bernard has dedicated his life to studying the Bible and helping believers apply its message to their daily lives. In Apostolic Life in the 21st century, Dr. Bernard answers your questions about what the Bible teaches and how those teachings apply to everyday life. Thank you for joining us for this episode. If you enjoy this podcast, we encourage you to check out Dr. David K. Bernard's books. Dr. Bernard has written more than 30 books on biblical theology and Christian living and leadership. Visit Pentecostal Publishing.com and search David Bernard for a list of available titles. Enter promo code DKB10 at checkout to save 10% on your order. That's Pentecostalpublishing.com, promo code DKB10 to save 10% at checkout. As the general superintendent, I don't think anybody would be surprised to learn that you have a very busy schedule and you also receive a lot of invitations to preach and teach at conferences, seminars, local church churches. In the middle of all that, with all your responsibilities as the general superintendent, with all the travel that you do, how do you find time to study?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Well, let me back up and answer more generally and then more specifically because I want it to be of maximum value to everyone else. But before I became general superintendent, of course, I was a full-time pastor for 18 years, as well as serving in other leadership capacities. And so I had the opportunity or the need to literally preach and teach thousands of times and prepare thousands of uh lessons or messages. So sometimes you by your schedule forces you to focus just on one message. But more generally, what I try to do is, of course, have a consistent prayer and Bible reading and Bible meditation life. So uh I try to read the Bible through every year. Often I will choose a different translation to help me look at it afresh, but for many years, um perhaps uh all my ministry and even before, I've tried to read the Bible through every year. So I read it not strictly to prepare for a message, but I just read it to study, to hear God's word. And then I also read books about the Bible, books that help me understand the Bible, uh, books of uh theological input, uh apostolic and even non-apostolic, that would help me understand the teachings of Scripture more clearly. And so with all that reading, and then along that is prayer and meditation. Sometimes I read uh for large volumes, sometimes just maybe a few verses slowly. Over the years, I've also developed a practice of memorizing a number of passages. Uh so the when whenever I read and study, the goal is not just to prepare one message, but to hear from God, to get thoughts. So frequently I will get a thought in reading the Bible, or it may be reading another book, and it may not even be the main thought of the author, but he says something in a certain way that just sparks something. And then even reading secularly, um I might read biography or history or current events or psychology or magazines such as Reader's Digest, but there might be an anecdote or story or an illustration that reminds me of a biblical principle or a biblical truth. So lots of times I would just jot that down. Do you have a specific like system to capture those things? Yes. Well, um, there are two ways. So if I have a physical Bible, I would always keep a notebook, I mean a notepaper, at least one piece where I could immediately jot something down. Because I found if you wait till the end of your prayer or the end of your study, uh you may have forgotten that point. So immediately I would jot a note and I would jot the scripture. And if it looks like it'd be a message, I will try to think of at least a title that will remind me of the thought. It might not be the ultimate title, but I'll jot it down. Uh if I'm reading a digital Bible, then I will try to keep notes. I have a, you know, uh a note on my iPad, for example. You can have a program where you keep notes electronically. So I will do that. Uh or computer, keep notes on the computer. And nowadays I usually try to transfer all these little thoughts to a computer. And I have a list, like right now, I probably have a list of 50 sermons that I've never preached, and some may I may never preach, but I have a title, uh, I have a scripture, and may have a few extra thoughts jotted down. Do you keep those in like Microsoft Word or how do you think that's a good thing? Well, that I just keep in a word processing program. I mean, uh I actually keep that in Excel, just uh um, you know, a database. So that way, let's say I'm uh I have an upcoming event. Well, I can go over those 50 topics and think about them, pray about them, see if anything jots, uh anything I put down, you know, just strikes me or jumps out at me that could be a message. Uh so that's what I would do when I was pastoring, particularly you're preaching to the same congregation, you have to have a new message. Uh so I would collect all these ideas, and then the week that it would that I'm scheduled to preach, I start reviewing these ideas to see if anyone is impressed to me. And once I feel like this is what God wants, and of course, sometimes he'll speak outside of what I've jotted down. But frequently, what I've read over the last few weeks or months, or what I've jotted down, I will sense now is the time for that particular thought. Well, then I would flesh it out by studying the scripture, studying other resources, developing notes, developing the main idea, developing supporting ideas, whether it be other passages of scripture, stories of scripture, personal testimonies, anecdotes, and flesh it out and make a real sermon. So it's not a full message until I do that, which is usually going to be that last week or last few days.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

You mentioned earlier that when you're reading, like for example, you mentioned reader's digest, you see a story or an anecdote in there. What was your system for capturing those?

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Well, sometimes I would try to think of the idea and categorize it under that idea. Other times I would just uh put it in a physical file or scan it as a digital file and uh put a label on it so that I would know the subject. So later when I'm thinking about preaching on a subject, hopefully I can either remember the article or at least go to the subject index and search and say, I I want an anecdote about obedience. And if I have two or three files or articles, then I can pull one out and see if it fits. Do you have a specific or a specific program you're using to capture those? Um not generally, generally word. I I would type it in word or scan it and it would be uh as a PDF or as a Word file, but I would organizing them. And then uh of course I would have physical files. But today, since I'm traveling everywhere, it's more convenient to have everything digitally and on my iPad than to have a group of physical files with me. I still have those files uh in in my office, but um I use the digital version. So that's the general plan. And the idea is you want to preach from the overflow. That is, you're not desperately thinking of trying to find one thought, but you have many thoughts, and you're not desperately trying to pray enough prayers to hear from God, but you're praying, and even if that week you did not pray an extraordinarily amount of time or some emergency came up and you didn't really have as much prayer time as you would like or normally, but yet you're preaching from the overflow. It's from the built-up prayer and study and meditation and ideas. That's ideal that you would do that. Now, today I'm traveling every week, I'm preaching a different place, and many times I'm preaching for district conferences or camps. So there are key messages that I feel God has given me for a district. Well, I may preach if I feel like specifically for that district, that's one thing, but many times I feel like it's given to the church. So I may preach the same thing in different districts, and I may have a number of messages, and so I discern what is God wanting to do in this particular setting? So I'm drawing something that I preached before in another district, but I feel it's pertinent for this district. Of course, when I do that, often I'm I'm I'm using the same title and the same verse and the same key points, but many times the testimonies, the anecdotes, the key points will change and it will be, or I'll feel led, if I have three main points, I might feel led to emphasize one point this time versus another point another time, or I may feel led to add a point. So it may be substantially different message, but it's still starting from the same core. But if I feel like God has given me a message for the church as a whole, then I feel it's not only acceptable but important to preach it in several different places. And for local churches, somewhat the same thing. Of course, I preached, I don't know, over a thousand messages when I was a pastor at the local church. So there are going to be lots of messages that are more pastoral. And uh when I go to a local church, I'm trying to do a couple things. I'm trying to cast a larger vision, but I'm also trying to minister to the people there. So often I will use a core of a message that I preached in our local church some time ago and that I may preach repeatedly in different churches, but of course it will be significantly changed by adding the vision of the UPCI, adding the testimonies current relating to current events, but at least I'm starting with a basic message that I've developed for a congregation. Uh now, when I'm working toward a general conference or ministerial conference, such as because of the times, it's going to cover many districts. Then I usually try to start several months in advance, praying, discerning what is God speaking to the church this year, in my role as general superintendent in some way, even though I may not be as good of a preacher or no better preacher than many, many others, but yet I have a unique role and a unique voice. And I'm speaking to the church, trying to give direction and vision in a way that others don't have that same responsibility. Although God can use them in that way, I feel like it's part of my responsibility. So I'm praying more specifically, and usually I will get an idea months ahead, but we'll keep working on it, thinking about it, praying about it, refining it, getting scripture, and it may morph in very different ways, but usually the last month I try to focus it and flesh it out and give detail and make sure it's still pertinent and relevant. And so those major messages usually are a process of perhaps six months of praying, meditating, studying, thinking, trying to put different pieces together. Uh, and then I focus uh, you know, on the last couple weeks of really honing it to that particular place and time. So there's not just one method, uh, but I think the main thing is to try to develop a consistent relationship with God, hearing from God, praying, studying the word of God, not just studying and reading narrowly to get one particular idea for one message, but being absorbed in the word and reading other materials that were relate to the word that help you think afresh, think creatively, think outside the box, think outside what you've already done or what you've heard so that God can speak to you personally. Yes, time is a challenge. Uh, so I always look at several messages ahead and try to be in prayer and thought about how, you know, what messages God would want to use at a particular time. So it's just kind of a work in progress as we go month by month and week by week.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

For that young minister that's out there, when you were training young ministers in your church, were there any specific resources that you recommended that they go to?

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Well, actually, uh there are newer books now that didn't exist uh when I was training. But uh the training I gave is actually in a book called Spiritual Leadership in the 21st Century. And I actually have a chapter on preparing for preaching and teaching the Word of God. So a lot of practical recommendations would be in that chapter in that book, Spiritual Leadership in the Twenty First Century. But we've got some great new resources at Pentecostalpublishing.com. We preach by Jerry Jones, our uh former general secretary, and he is now a professor at Urshan College. Uh another one I think is called um Life Preaching. It's by Jonathan McClintock, who's also a professor at Urshian College and the campus pastor. Uh, there are other resources, but those two come to mind uh by Jerry Jones and Jonathan McClintock. So those are apostolic United Pentecostal practical tools for learning to preach and learning to study so that God would help you with specific messages. And I do believe obviously the message has to come from God, but yet we can develop certain disciplines and certain patterns where we can be more effective in structuring a message that is suitable for the occasion.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Thank you for listening to this episode of Apostolic Life in the Twenty First Century. If you enjoy this podcast, please take a moment to give us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We also appreciate it when you share Apostolic Life in the 21st century with a friend or family member. And make plans to join us again next time as we look at how the Bible applies to everyday life.